Omnishambles, gif named Oxford Dictionary’s words of the year

Oxford Dictionary words of the year: Omnishambles, gif

“Omnishambles” and “gif”: these are your words of the year, world.

On Tuesday, Oxford University Press’s British version announced “omnishambles” — defined as “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations” — as its word of the year, reflecting the general British mood. (The origin is satirical TV series The Thick of It.) Meanwhile, the dictionary’s U.S. edition chose “gif,” short for graphics interchange format, a common file for animated image on the Internet. Others shortlisted include:

Mummy Porn: The genre best exemplified by the bestselling 50 Shades of Grey books, by E.L. James, was a frontrunner, though for pun purposes it would have been better if there was a tie.

YOLO: The acronym (“you only live once”) was popularized by Canadian hip hop star Drake, a.k.a. Aubrey Graham, a.k.a. the most famous alumnus of Degrassi.

Eurogeddon: The general catch-all for describing Europe’s financial mess is fun, but probably better used as a Syfy movie-of-the week title.